anders c. nielsen

Hey Tom & Ian,

Well, I just thought I had time for a little message ;-)
The reason why I almost never contribute to the discussions anymore is
because I don´t have so much time on my hands anymore..and as I´ve said
before : it takes me longer to write a message than you guys (due to the
fact that english is not my no. 1 language)

Anyway, I´ve listened to Manowar the whole day and I thought I would write
down my thoughts in this group. After all it´s the Manowar-group ;-)

I listened to "The Triumph of steel". I´ve always liked that album A LOT,
but somehow I´ve always skipped some of the tracks. Today I listened to it
end to end several times. I found out that I liked ALL the songs very very


The whole album stands out as a whole. Many of the other Manowar albums have
too many filler-tracks IMO. The 4 career-highlights must be "Battle Hyms (it
helps that it´s their debut), Into Glory Ride, Kings of metal...and then
TTOS of course.

The other albums (combined) have many classic songs of course, but I´m
talking about the albums as a whole.

I really must say that TTOS is my favourite Manowar album. It combines ALL
that I like about Manowar : The true Metal-Power, The Epic, The
beautiful...and the "seriousness" if you know what I mean.

Right after that I listened to "Warriors of the world". What a
disappointment and totally let-down when you´ve just listened to TTOS right
before that.
WOTW is really NOTHING compared to an album like TTOS. WOTW and LTH are
just too silly and childish in too many ways...but maybe Joey have used up
his talent and now he´s just "playing"....

All that is good and strong about TTOS is 100% lacking on WOTW - at least
IMO.
There are only 3 average Manowar tracks on WOTW. They are : "Call to
arms", "the title track", "hand of doom". And they´re all 3 pretty
forgetable...

It´s not like Manowar put out a new album every year, so I really don´t
understand why they can´t do better than that?!!! (LTH ****ed too)
Also, I really don´t understand why so many people (especially younger fans
maybve) liked WOTW so much....it sold very well in Germany for example.

In my world TTOS has the same "status" as JP´s "Painkiller". It´s a
masterpiece and you can listen to it end to end.
- There are only 3 other JP albums I can listen to end to end. They are Sad
wings...", "Stained Class" and "Defenders of the Faith."

But the 2 absolutely "stand-outs" must be Painkiller and Stained Class.

Ok, that must be it for now!!
Happy new year BTW...

Anders


PS : Here´s a very funny link to a Brasillian web-site... (there are 2
pages)

http://www.rnb.hpg.ig.com.br/novinhos.htm

It's good to see you. It's been a long time.


Give us a note about every month or something so we know you're still alive.


I haven't actually listened to that album in a while. It's great of
course. Perhaps their last classic album.

Yeah, I agree for the most part. Not so sure they've really topped Battle Hymns.


My real disappointment with Warriors is that it should have been all
original songs. Skip the Nessum (opera sounding song) and the American
Trilogy thing. Or have them as bonus stuff.


I liked it fine when I first heard it. However, it's been a while
since I listened to it, so I might not like it so much now.

I agree with that last part. Louder Than Hell does ****. Some of the
songs come off better live though.

As did Triumph of Steel

Ian isn't too much up on Judas Priest. I think he likes some of
their classic songs, but not the ones on the radio all the time.
(Breaking the Law, Living after Midnight.)

There's others I do like a lot as well besides those classics. I
always liked Sin After Sin a lot, Hell Bent for Leather isn't bad
either. (I think that album is known as Killing Machine in Europe)
However, only the most loyal fans can like albums like Point of
Entry, Turbo, and even Ram it Down.

Happy new year to you as well.
Ian, I think of the JP albums, Painkiller might well be the one for
you. It's mostly thrashy metal. A lot of fast riffs and such.


Seeing pictures of rock stars as kids is always amusing. Especially
with some of the sort of hard edged image a lot of them have today.

Tom

ian salsbury

For some time now I thought this group had been abandoned apart from me and
Tom, and all of a sudden I log on and about 15 messages pop up! Nice to see
people still out there!

I never saw why KoM was so highly regarded personally...and my absolute
favourite Manowar album is SotH. But otherwise I get your point I think
TToS is great aswell and a return to form after what I thought were 2 decent
but disappointing albums ( there`s little on side 1 of FtW that I like and
I`ve always thought KoM was full of filler material ). Sadly I do agree that
the band have gone downhill since, LtH was very poor and although I like
much of WotW it was too short considering the length of time it took to come
out and had few real stand out tracks. Although I did think the Dawn of
Battle single was really good. If the 2 new songs on that one replaced the 2
cover`s on the main album the whole thing would have been much stronger.

ian salsbury

I`ve always quite liked BtL although nowadays it just reminds me of Beavis
and Butthead. LaM was a pretty lame song though!


I`ve given all the JP stuff another run through lately as I mentioned on the
Slayer group. Enjoyed Painkiller and the rest of the albums in patches.
Stained Class was good. It may be considered blasphemy by some but I`ve
always found Halford`s voice a bit of a weak link, it`s hard to really get
into a band if you don`t like the vocalist.

Which gives rise to the question. Why did they hold up those two
songs when they probably were already written and ready to be a part
of WotW?
I also like the Dawn of Battle single.

Tom

The other songs the radio here always plays is Anther Thing Coming.
Which for the most part is average. However, that solo still impresses
me after all these years. Occasionally they'll play Turbo Lover.
Anyway, Judas Priest has produced so many more impressive songs than
those 4. Granted, they've also produced some fluffy cheesy songs as well.

I would think that Painkiller would be the better album by Judas
Priest for you. What with your like of Thrash, death and black metal.
Which is all usually very fast aggressive stuff. Painkiller is all
that in spades.


Stained Class is more than good. It's golden. I do understand your
comment about a bands singer. It's hard to like a band if you can't
stand the singer's voice.
Somewhat the reason I don't like a lot of death metal, or black
metal. The vocals are sometimes hard to take.

Tom

ian salsbury

To make more money I guess. Always surprised me that they never re-released
it with the new songs.

Maybe they will once the supplies of the WotW and Dawn of Battle run
low. I've heard that the Dawn of Battle has sold quite well for a
Single-EP.
Of course some of this might henge on whatever record label they
sign with for the future, or if they just issue albums on their own
Magic Circle imprint.

I'm currently spinning Warriors right now. I guess in many ways
after Louder than Hell, they could only do better. However, if you've
long listened to Manowar, then a song like Swords in the Wind fits in
with the sort of battle hymn songs they do. Usually on all the albums.

Call to Arms isn't bad either. When you get to the last 4 songs on
the album, they're all a sort of power metal-thrash metal sort of
stuff, and not as dynamic as a lot of things they have done. But even
with that, there's a sort of call back to songs like Blood of my
Enemies, Sign of the Hammer, The Oath and such.
I don't think it's as good as Triumph of Steel, but that album
really was uncompromising, even more so than they usually are. Opening
the album with the super long 8 part Achilles song really sets the
scene. Odd enough though, I think my favorite song off of the album is
Master of the Wind.

In a few words, still listenable.

Tom

ian salsbury

My take on WotW

A Call to Arms...great, typical sing it loud sort of Manowar song. Like this
one a lot. Although the line - "I can tell by the look in your eyes...you
came here for metal to fight and to die" always amuses me somewhat.

Fight for Freedom...pretty poor. I don`t like this sort of slushy
sentimental stuff much at all, although as these songs go it`s better than
some.

Nessun Dorma...pointless. Not that they don`t do it well for what it is, but
it should never have been more than a B side to a single.

Valhalla...over before it begins, harmless

Swords in the Wind...have to admit I`m a ****er for all this Odin and
valkyrie stuff, possibly why I like Amon Amarth so much! Eric Adams has such
a good voice he can pull a song off like this where many would fail. Not a
classic but decent.

An American Trilogy...pointless again, they`ve done a decent cover of it but
it wasn`t a song I cared for in the first place and sounds terribly out of
place on a Manowar album. Another one that should have been a B side.

The March...I quite like this, although by this stage in the album it`s the
sixth song in a row that isn`t really a metal song. Not good for the self
styled Kings of Metal. Sounds like something from a film score.

Warriors of the World United...typical Manowar fist puncher. A good solid
song.

Hand of Doom...now we`re talking! This is the sort of stuff Manowar do best
IMO, and continue to do for the rest of the album

House of Death...more of the same, similar in style to HoD and similarly
great.

Fight Until We Die...saved the best for last, I think this song rules and
continues where the last 2 left off.

SO..I think 4 of the songs are great, 2 are good, 3 are crap and 2 are
instrumental pieces that don`t really count. So all in all a decent album
worth a 7/10 from me. What annoyed me most of all was this was the first
release from the band for 6 years and minus the covers and fiddly bits they
could only come up with 34 minutes of new music. A couple of months later
they released a single with 2 great new songs totalling 11 minutes. The
album would have been so much better if these were on it aswell ( even at
the expense of the covers ). Dawn of Battle is similar in style to the last
3 songs so perhaps they felt it overkill to put it on there, I don`t know. I
Believe would have been great early on in the album though, an anthemic
Carry On sort of tune that could have beefed up the early part a bit.